


It’ll Be the Perfect Ending to the Perfect Day

by Darkmagyk



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - College/University, Chistmas, Fluff, M/M, Mpreg, Pre-Avengers (2012), Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-01-15
Packaged: 2018-01-07 01:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkmagyk/pseuds/Darkmagyk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet in an Omega Studies Class freshmen year, the oldest two students by a wide margin. Clint Barton and Phil Coulson have a lot to connect them, former military, college on the GI Bill, a deep love of Christmas. One thing they do not have is a bond. They are all the happier for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It’ll Be the Perfect Ending to the Perfect Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [msraven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/msraven/gifts).



> Brief discussion of abuse in Clint's back story. The occurrence of dub-con within A/B/O universes is implied by not really out right stated, and it in no way applies to Clint and Phil's relationship.
> 
> thanks to ereshai for the beta

“You are ridiculous.” Phil tells him, but he punctuates it by leaning across the table and giving Clint a kiss, so Clint figures he doesn't really mind it.

“Why don’t you like Christmas?” is Clint’s childish response.

“You know I like Christmas,” Phil started, “I just don’t know how appropriate it would be.”

“Its Christmas, its a celebration, it would be perfectly appropriate for our wedding,” Clint counters.

“Our families won’t be able to come,” Phil counters back.

Clint’s mouth frowns a bit, but it isn’t until Clint says “Natasha already said she could make it, regardless of the when or where. She suggested Siberia in January,” that Phil realizes maybe he shouldn't have phrased it just so.

“Right,” Phil nods, because as far as Clint is concerned, his family is Phil and Natasha. Clint likes Phil’s family, but doesn’t seem to realize how much they like him, Phil hopes that between the marriage and everything that would change, but it will be slow going regardless. “Well we could…”

“It could be in the afternoon, just you and me, you parents and sister, and Natasha,” Clint offered. “We can even do it near your parents’ house, I’m sure we can find someone to do it there.”

“Do you have someone to do it here?” Phil asks skeptically.

“Yeah, Jasper got ordained or whatever for his sister's wedding last year. She married another omega female so they had a hard time finding a person willing to do the ceremony apparently,” Clint explains.

“You asked?”

"Yeah, well, I saw him at the coffee shop the other day. I mentioned we were planning to get married, but trying to save some money. He told me he was ordained and that he had a key to the Unitarian Student Center, and it would be all decorated for Christmas already if I was interested." Clint smiles. "I told him I was, and we talked about dates. I mentioned Christmas sounded really romantic, and he said he could guarantee an empty space after three in the afternoon."

"Christmas?" Phil repeats, "That might be cutting it kind of close, don't you think?"

Clint squeezes his hand and then leans over the table to kiss Phil again, before bringing his hand down to rub against Phil's ever expanding midsection, "Five weeks," Clint said, "I don't know if we'll have time to plan something sooner, and afterwards I think we need to be on call, never know when the kid is going to make an appearance."

Phil looks at Clint's wide, expectant eyes. Clint, who's had a lot of terrible Christmases, and who barely feels like he had a family. Phil can give him this.

"Ok, I'll call Mom and Dad," Phil agrees.

Clint beams, "I also might invite Mel," He smirks. "As a thank you present for Jasper."

Phil laughs and is reminded again why he loves this man so much, and why he wants to marry him.

***

Clint doesn’t want to bond. Part of that, Phil’s sure, is that he’s a beta, and because betas just aren’t told from the time they are little to think that bonding is the end all be all of relationships. But more than that, it is because Clint loves him too much for it.

“I don’t want you to stay with me because of some biological imperative,” he had whispered, rubbing his hand over Phil’s not yet showing belly. “And I don’t want you to be forced to stay with me. I never ever want that.”

And Phil understands, because Clint’s parents had been a bonded alpha/omega pair. His mother had packed up the two beta boys and gone off to a shelter exactly once, for five weeks, until her heat hit. Then, she’d run home, taking her sons with her. Clint had just gotten the cast off from a broken wrist, the event that had finally gotten his mother to leave. Clint will firmly not talk about the two weeks that followed. Two weeks, and then his father got drunk and drove his ‘beloved bond mate’ into a tree.

“I never got what was so romantic about bonding,” Clint had said, as a freshmen, the second oldest person in the Intro to Omega Studies class, and the only beta. “Hey, I love you so much now, I’m going to make it biologically impossible for you to leave me in the future.”

He had continued to argue his point in the face of criticism from most of the class, like “Well, if its abusive they can get chemical help.” Clint had rolled his eyes, “Do you know how much those cost, it’s a class issue as well.” Or, “betas just don’t understand, they are jealous.” “betas are capable of bonding, just not to other betas, just like how alphas can’t bond to alphas and omegas can’t bond to omegas.” That had launched into a debate about if those relationships counted or were as meaningful as alpha/omega ones, and then someone implied they might be immoral. This finally got this Professor to interject, saying that this was a safe space and that it wasn’t allowed. Then class was over so it didn’t matter anyway. Phil stayed still in the back, watching Clint’s muscular arms as he packed away his books. When he got up to make his way out of the room, Phil quickly ran to catch up with him.

He’d already confirmed his status as a beta. Phil himself rarely reads omega out of heat. And unbonded omegas only go into heat once or twice a year. Phil’s never given much stock to the idea of how different status are supposed to behave. Sure, he’s known plenty of burly alphas with a desire to control everything, small, passive omegas, and betas who seem just to sit around and offer pithy advice like it’s some sort of rom-com. But Phil was an army ranger. He served with plenty of people of all genders and statuses. And the scariest person he knew was beta female who could beat anyone in a fight.

Clint looks like an alpha is supposed to look. He’s got broad shoulders and defined arms and a general ‘don’t fuck with me’ look on his face most of the time. But he never claims to be anything other than a beta, and happily gets into fights about omega rights. Phil is just a little desperate to talk to him.

“Hey,” he says as he gets in step with Clint, “I liked your point, in class today.”

Clint stops and stares. He gave Phil a skeptical once over. Phil blushes just a little bit, he feels like Clint’s blue eyes see more than normal peoples. “I just mean, your point about bonding. People so rarely talk about how it can go bad.”

“You don’t think I’m a jealous beta missing the magic and the romance?” he asks. “I got that a lot in the army.”

Phil can’t help but smile, “Yeah, I always thought it was funny how all of the alpha’s in my unit were closet romantics.” Phil rolls his eyes, “and then they’d get on me for being an omega, like I should be the one swooning.” Phil smirks. “That led to some epic fights.”

“Yeah?” Clint asks, and he looks brighter now. “Did you win?”

And they have coffee that turns into dinner that turns into drinks that turns into a late night chat on Phil’s couch. Clint leaves at two am only because they both have early classes the next day. He's very reluctant and they not only swap contact info, they agree to meet after class tomorrow, too.

It turns out they are both ex-special forces (Phil was a Ranger and Clint a Green Beret) and are both going back to school on the GI Bill. Clint's just turned 26 and Phil's almost 29. Clint's studying engineering and Phil's studying international affairs and Public Administration. They are both taking Russian for their foreign language requirement.

They met in October, and by December they are spending more nights together than apart. By the next summer they've gotten a small apartment together.

They are both adults, they've got lives behind them, blood on their hands. They know what they want. They aren’t naive freshmen entering their first tentative relationships. The connection is unmistakable and beautiful. They talk about getting married a lot during the second year at school. Clint stays with Phil through his yearly heat. It is after that when he confesses that he won't ever bond Phil, though the specifics of why come later.

Phil finds it refreshing. He's not exactly the textbook omega, which saves him from some of the basic responses of people on the street, but it doesn't protect him when people know in official capacities. Sometimes it makes it worse. Clint doesn't see Phil Coulson, omega male and potential mate. Clint sees Sergeant Phillip Coulson, future international lawyer Phil Coulson, Captain America fanboy Phil Coulson. It is so disgustingly refreshing on top of everything else that makes Clint perfect.

Phil worries, the day he finds out he's pregnant, that that could all change. Its much harder for non-bonded omegas to get pregnant, particularly males. They go into heat rather infrequently, and though they have other, less strong fertile cycles, they aren't very likely to produce children. Phil thinks it’s kind of funny, given what people say about beta fertility, that his beta boyfriend gets his unbonded partner pregnant outside of heat. He doesn't know if this will change things with Clint, if he'll feel this is too close to a omega/alpha relationship, or if he'll decide that this mean they should bond after all. He doesn't know if this will make Clint finally see Phil as a omega, as a mate, and he also doesn't know if that will drive Clint away or make him cling too close.

Clint does neither. He grins, kisses him, and then goes solemn. "Promise you won't let me fuck the kid up?" he asks.

"I will if you promise to make sure I don't either," Phil answers, and Clint nods, shakes Phil's hand in jest, and kisses him again.

Clint calls his old friend Natasha from his army days (Phil thinks that's where she's from, he's a bit unclear about the details, though he's pretty sure she's one of the reasons Clint left) to tell her while Phil tells his family.

Clint does step up the marriage talk, but he doesn't become clingy or possessive or over protective. He gets Phil what he needs, but also knows that Phil's a grown up with ten years in the military behind him and that he's not helpless, even pregnant. Phil has not problem with the marriage discussion.

But even so, it takes them until October to agree on everything.

***

Marcus calls at the beginning of November, he'll have some time off around Thanksgiving and he wants to see Phil. Phil is more than happy to agree.

"Aw Hell, Cheese," Marcus says as Phil walks in, clearly very pregnant, "What the fuck happened to you?"

Phil frowns, "What are you talking about?"

"You got yourself knocked up, seriously, and you didn't even mention it?" Marcus almost looks offended, "These are things your best friend should know."

"Yeah, like how you apparently left the Army?" Phil questions with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, you heard about that, did you?" Marcus looks shifty now.

"I did, no one’s quite sure what happened." Phil clearly wanted Marcus to tell him.

"It is a long story that isn't technically complete and might also be very classified," Marcus admits, "but I'll fill you in full later." He waves at Phil's expanding belly, "How bout you tell me what's up with that."

"I'm pregnant," Phil says, like it isn't blatantly obvious, "Due in January."

Marcus looks at him critically for a moment, "You haven't bonded, the...guy? ditch you?" Marcus asks, and his tone suggests that Marcus will call in that friend from the CIA, find that guy in question, and lock him up somewhere no one will ever find him.

"No, he's at home. Clint wanted to meet you actually, but I figured I'd save the terrifying best friend until after we got married," Phil explains.

Marcus nods. It wasn't uncommon for people to save bonding for the wedding ceremony; it might not be as passion-filled as heat or sex bonding, but it could be done in front of one's family and friends. Some religions required it. "You want to wait until you’re bonded and he has to stay with you," but even as he says it Marcus frowns.

It took Phil a moment to get why, but yeah, unbonded omegas could do just about any military jobs, but bonded ones weren't supposed to be in combat in most situations. It was a whole bunch of stupid bullshit, and people were working on changing the laws and the culture, but it was slow going. Marcus always wanted Phil by his side, always wanted the option of Phil coming back. It was almost unheard of for a bonded omega with a child to get hired into any kind of field operation, particularly if they hadn't been in it directly before their pregnancy.

"We aren't bonding," Phil says.

"What kind of alpha doesn't want to bond with a hot young thing like you." And Marcus actually looks a little annoyed.

"The beta kind who thinks if he has to force me to stay with biology, we shouldn't be together in the first place," Phil explains.

Marcus looks thoughtful for a moment, "Are you sure I can't meet this guy?" he finally asks.

"Wedding’s on Christmas, here, at the Unitarian Student Center, at 4 pm." Phil grins, "You are more than welcome to come and meet him then."

***

They spend Christmas Eve with Phil’s parents and sister, and Natasha. They hang stockings and drink eggnog, and Clint settles into the feeling of family. At the end of the evening, Nat disappears to wherever she is staying, and the Coulsons go to their hotel, because Clint and Phil’s little apartment cannot hold them all.

Clint curls up behind Phil, kissing his neck and rubbing his growing belly in their bed that night. “We’ll have to think up names soon,” Phil reminds him, “we only have about five weeks left.”

“We can do it once your family goes home,” Clint recommends, “So we can decide for ourselves, not let the others choose.”

“I love you,” Phil whispers as he drifts off to sleep, and he barely hears Clint return the sentiment before he’s asleep.

They sleep peacefully into Christmas day. They have a baby on the way, and they know that their days of sleeping through the night will soon be at an end. They don't mind as much as one would think, but for Christmas, they both sleep in a little while. They are meeting the family for Christmas Dinner at noon in a little restaurant that serves the best Chinese food in town. Clint had spent all of his good Christmases prior to Phil eating Chinese food and normally seeing movies, so it was a tradition Phil was more than happy to continue.

They agreed Christmas presents would be dealt with after the ceremony. And so they all share a pleasant meal together until two, when they separate to get ready for the wedding. They part with a kiss, bright grins, and pleas of “I love you” before Phil goes with his family back to the hotel, and Clint and Natasha head to the apartment. They don’t actually put much stock in the idea that the couple can’t see each other on the big day, that’s all tied up in ideas of virginity and arranged marriages, which a) don’t have a lot to do with betas anyhow and b) are all undone by the fact that Phil is already about eight months pregnant, but Natasha says (rightly so, really) that they both will be nervous wrecks if they have to get ready together, so separation it is.

They all enter the Unitarian Student Center at just before four, and Clint grins as Jasper keeps glancing over at Melinda, who glares at Clint when she notices. Mel is a former Air Force pilot and a physics grad student, which is how she knows Clint. He can’t help but think that Jasper - Phil’s closest friend at school, a former navy diver who Phil met and bonded with at orientation by nature of being the only two people over 22- and Melinda could get along great.

They haven’t planned a long ceremony, with no religious component and no space for a bonding, but they do trade short, personal vows, before they are pronounced husband and husband and kiss. A group hug commences before Phil begins to flinch. It takes Mrs. Dyer-Coulson, the only person there to have given birth in the past, about five minutes to see that Phil’s having contractions, and that at just five weeks from the due date, the baby is probably on its way. As they rush to get Phil to the hospital, with Natasha heading to get Phil’s go-bag from the apartment, and Melinda offering to stay behind and help Jasper close up shop.

***

Clint squeezes Phil’s hand and caresses his hair and does everything a good mate was supposed to do during labor, though when the nurse calls Clint that, he snaps at him. He says they aren’t mates, they are husbands. And he might be a little tense, because he ends up going on a brief rant about how their relationship was based on love and not biology. He wasn’t there for Phil out of some overpowering instinct, he was there because Phil was an amazing person, he was bringing their daughter into the world, and always deserved Clint’s love and support.

Phil would remember that for years, telling anyone who would listen about his husband, who loved him enough to not need a bond.

Labor takes almost eight hours. “I think it will be into tomorrow morning.” the midwife says when she shows up.

But she’s wrong, and Phil successfully gives birth to a healthy female at 11:43 on December 25.

Before Phil falls asleep he kisses the baby’s forehead, and says two things to Clint, “I love you so much,” and “Don’t name her something stupid and Christmas related like Merry or Holly or Noel.” Clint nods and then goes and tells the family about the new arrival.

They are cooing over their daughter into the early hours of the next morning when there's a knock on the door, and Marcus enters the room, only instead of the jeans he was wearing when Phil saw him over Thanksgiving, he’s in a black shirt and slacks and a long black leather coat over both of them. But the most shocking thing is the addition of the eye patch.

Before Phil can ask his best friend what the hell is going on, Marcus whips out a business card, and hands it to Clint. “Nick Fury,” he says, and Phil frowns, pulling his daughter closer.

“Senior Field Agent for the Strategic, Homeland…” Clint begins reading the card.

“S.H.I.E.L.D.” Marcus or Fury or whatever corrects, “its a law enforcement agency, think the CIA but on a more global scale, with interests beyond the US, or Interpol if it was anything as useful as it is in movies.”

“And…”

“And I just got a new job there, and the director, also Nick Fury - its a long story - has told me to get a team together.” He looks them up and down with his single eye, “I want the two of you.”

Clint’s eyes narrow, “Why?” he asks skeptically.

Fury grins, and its like Marcus but with a bite to it, “You’ll be done with school in the spring, right? Clint Barton, engineering Magna Cum Laude, former green beret sniper. World’s Greatest Marksman, superior acrobat, gymnast and hand-to-hand fighter with a flare for flying things and languages.” He turned to Phil “Phil Coulson, or is it Coulson-Barton, now,” and that smirk is all Marcus. “Former Army Ranger, soon to have a degree in International Affairs and Public Administration, with a minor in computer science, which is something I need on my team. Plus rumor has it you once killed a man with a block of cheese.”

Phil rolls his eyes, Marcus of all people knew the truth about that story. “Don’t worry” Phil assures Clint, “That makes it sound like more of a thing then it was. It wasn’t a big deal and people need to stop talking about it.”

“I think you’d be great to have on my team, and more than that, I think you’d be a great team together,” he explains. “It’s Christmas and you got a kid and shit, so I’ll leave you for now. The offer isn’t be for until you graduate anyway,” he says and gets to the doorway before turning back to Phil and giving the most classic Marcus grin, “And by the way Cheese, she’s adorable,” and he sweeps out of the room.

“What just happened?” Clint asks.

“I think we just got a very important job offer,” Phil says, “I will explain the very little I know later, when everyone has slept just a bit.”

Clint nods “Um, ok...” he paused, “ So, just to recap, today we got married,” He grins at the silver band on his finger, vibranium, like Cap’s legendary shield. “We had an amazing, perfect daughter.” He softly brushes her sleeping head, and then he glances down at the business card, “And then we got a very scary, but possibly awesome pitch for a job, where we’d work together?”

“Yes,” Phil agrees, “I think that about sums it up.”

“Ok, awesome,” Clint shoves that card into his pocket. “So we should deal with the third thing later, right? Concentrate on the marriage and baby now.”

“I think so.” Phil agrees.

“Ok,” Clint agrees, “So I had some ideas about names.”

**Author's Note:**

> Here is my [tumblr](http://darkmagyk.tumblr.com/)


End file.
